You’ve already read about the Hero HTC phone here back in June, but what you don’t know is we’re not the only ones interested in the phone that uses Google technology was just elected Gadget of the Year by the 2009 Stuff Gadget Awards.
The Hero, which uses the Android operating system and features a five megapixel camera and 3.2 inch screen, can make calls, take pictures, and thanks to Android, check your email. One of the judges at the annual Gadget festival declared that the HTC Hero is “as clever and as sexy as the iPhone”, which is actually pretty awesome unless you take him literally, then it just sounds like he’s hitting on it.
Further highlights of the Stuff Gadget Awards were the iPhone 3GS snagging Phone of the Year and Readers’ Gadget of the Year, Spotify for Audio Gadget, and the Sony KDL-40WE5 as Eco Gadget of the Year.
If you love surfing the websites of foreign countries but find it too much of a hassle to learn to speak their language first, then you’ll love what Google’s about to do for you. They’ve issued free software that allows website operators to automatically translate online pages into any of 51 languages.
It’s called the “translator gadget”, and it will automatically shift the language on the page to match the default browser’s language. Let’s say that I’m a guy from somewhere near Iran, and my browser’s set to Farsi. I surf on over to Craigslist to look for a job writing for a fashion magazine, and they’ve got the gadget installed, and boom! Suddenly Craigslist is coming to me live in Farsi.
Granted, the system isn’t foolproof. As everyone who’s surfed Engrish.com knows, translation isn’t always an exact science, especially for software. But still, those occasional errors should at least be entertaining!
Here’s a novel approach to Google Street View: the Google Trike. Designed specifically to reach historical landmarks, the Google Trike will first appear in Genoa, Italy (yum, meat) and then make its way to the UK sometime later this summer. Google has requested that the British public provide suggestion on what historical landmarks and places to focus on. Later, a vote will determine the top 3 locations Google Trike will visit first. Now for some additional info regarding the Google Trike and Google’s Street View policy:
The trike weighs nearly 18 stone!
We will use specially trained super fit Google employees and contractors to ride the Trikes.
The “trikers” wear Google cycle helmets and clothing
There are 5 categories under which people can submit their ideas. The categories are: Castles, Coastal paths, Natural Wonders, Historic Buildings & Monuments and (Sports) Stadiums.
We will be accepting suggestions for a limited time and we’ll then work with Visit Britain to choose the most original ideas from each category. The public will then be able to cast their final votes and choose the top 3 locations we’ll try to add to Street View (pending sunny weather).
As we only collect images from public roads we’ll work closely with the relevant organizations to collect images of privately-owned locations.
As with all Street View imagery in the UK, we will apply our face-blurring and license plate blurring to all these images to protect people’s privacy. People will be able to report images for removal in the same way as they can now by clicking on ‘report a problem’ on the bottom left hand corner of the image. From here they complete a short form where they indicate the precise image to be removed
Rumors from unnamed sources suggest Google is considering a buyout of the popular Twitter service. Other reports suggest they’re only collaborating on a real-time search engine. Whatever the case may be, a joint ‘twoogle’ project is sure to be something very interesting.
I don’t do it often but I get a fair share of emails with the attachments missing and another email quickly following it with the attachment intact. Google Gmail has just added an “Undo” feature that allows you to retract a sent email for up to five seconds in case you forget an attachment or a CC, etc. When you see the email sending, there will a cancel button you can hit to halt the email in its tracks. This then brings the email back to draft status allowing you to make the necessary changes. What it won’t do is exhume emails that have made it past the 5 second mark. You can enable this option under the Gmail settings tab and then the labs tab in which undo will be towards the bottoms of the list. Easy enough.
Twitter has literally exploded in the faces of the many in the last 6 months. Dubbed a “poor man’s email system” by Google chief Eric Schmidt in an interview with Charlie Rose over the weekend, Twitter is just too expensive right now. Twitter is also apparently holding out too as they just turned down an offer from FaceBook for 500 million dollars. Schmidt said the same thing about YouTube back in 2006 right before he dropped 1.65 billion dollars for the video sharing website. Tough decisions indeed.
Google released the final version of their Chrome 1.0 Windows browser. Not much has changed since the first release besides a few bug fixes, new bookmark manager, and improved plugin support.
According to reports, the browser should still be in beta but Google’s desire to push it out to PC manufacturers caused them to release it early. I say kudos to them if they can make a dent on IE’s dominance on pre-configured PCs.
November 24th, 2008 9:20 PM | by Christen da Costa
T-Mobile launched a white version of the G1 Google Android smartphone today. The price remains the same, $180, as do all the specs. A word to the wise, though: I had a white Macbook and by month 7 it was stained by my sweaty palms.
There were rumors floating around that ’street view’ for Google maps would show on the next iPhone firmware update, 2.2. And here’s some pictures that emerged today from the developer beta to confirm it.
Notably, walking and mass transit direction have made it into this update as well.
If you felt slighted during the private sale of T-Mobile’s G1 to preexsting customers, feel slighted no more! The G1 is now available for purchase to the mass public with a $180 price tag after a two year contract. Hurry, because something tells me these things are gonna disappear faster than you can say ‘Hannah Montana paraphernalia’.
